


nose

by homosandhomies



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Bullying, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Female Friendship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Jewish Character, Original Character(s), POV First Person, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 16:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21323044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosandhomies/pseuds/homosandhomies
Summary: astoria was always bullied for her nose. but maybe a new friend can come along the way to show her that she is beautiful.
Kudos: 2





	nose

**Author's Note:**

> This is another fic that I wrote when I was starting my fanfiction journey, so it might be kind of cringey. I might edit it. I headcanon Astoria Greengrass as Jewish, and as a Jew myself, I just want more modern Jewish characters in the media. I thought it would be a fun idea to write about a girl with a stereotypical "Jewish nose" (whatever that means).
> 
> Eliza is my OC, and I'm still working on fleshing her out a bit more, but I love her!

I always loved the nighttime. I loved the dark, quiet, peacefulness. In the middle of the night, I would sit in the Slytherin common room and read a book. It might sound strange, since the Slytherin common room is cold and hard, but for whatever reason, I found it comforting.

"Oi, Greengrass!" a too familiar voice called. Pansy Parkinson. She wasn't whispering, so I assumed she cast a silencing charm. I sat in my chair, frozen, staring at my book. "Alone again?"

"Ignore her," I muttered to myself. Pansy constantly teased me, so I chose to always ignore her. I didn't feel like wasting my breath on her.

I heard her footsteps coming closer and closer, until the book was snatched out of my hand. "Who are you talking to? Your nose?" she sneered. "I wouldn't be surprised, it's bigger than a hippogriff. Might as well be your only friend."

I stood up and stared her in the eye. "Is that the best insult you can come up with?" I snapped. She chuckled.

"Feisty, are we?" she pushed me onto a sofa forcefully. The coldness of the room was no longer comforting. It was suffocating. I tried to push her off, but to no avail. She must have worked out a lot, her arms were like bolders.

"Where you trying to go, Big Nose?" Pansy cackled. Her voice was like knives piercing through my ears. I used all my strength to push her away, and to my surprise, she let go. She got off of me and started to walk to her dorm, but turned around to look at me. "Do yourself a favor and just change it permanently. I can't stand looking at it every day." She skipped off to her dorm.

That was the first time Pansy had ever shoved me. Her game was mainly words, but she had never done this before.

I sat up, shivering, trying to fight tears. I curled up into a ball and looked down until I couldn't hold it in anymore and sobbed quietly.

*

Pansy went back to names and teasing, never going further than that. But she start spending most of her time on me, always when no one would notice. Any time she got the chance to, she would whisper in my ear.

"Big Nose."

"Nosey."

"Ugly."

Her insults weren't even that clever, but the more she used them, the more they seeped into my brain. Every time I looked in the mirror, I could hear her voice taunting and jeering.

I was walking through the corridors on my way to Care of Magical Creatures, my favorite subject. But then I felt a cold hand on my shoulder stop me in my tracks.

Pansy whispered softly in my ear, "Hey, Astoria? Don't bother getting up tomorrow. No one wants to look at you." Before I could run away, she shoved me to the wall, then walked away.

No one saw us, or maybe they did but didn't want to say anything.

Going to class didn't matter to me at that point. By the time the hall was empty, I sat down on the floor and looked down.

I'm ugly, I said to myself before letting hot tears fall.

"Are you okay?" a soft voice said. I looked up and saw a tall girl with long, curly brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders and rested on her Hufflepuff robe.

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. "Yeah, I'm fine." I was about to stand up, but she knelt down in front of me.

"You don't seem fine," she said skeptically. "You can tell me what's going on if you want. I'm a good listener."

Her green eyes showed such concern, and I couldn't look away. She seemed like a genuinely kind person.

So I told her everything. I told her about Pansy, about her teasing the past few months. How Pansy went out of her way constantly to remind me how ugly I was. I could feel the tears coming back.

She held me in her arms and let me cry. As I sobbed, I noticed that she smelled like flowers. My sobs turned to hiccups, which later turned to silence.

"Have you ever heard of Barbra Streisand?" she asked me.

What? "No..." I croaked.

"She's a Muggle actress. When she became famous, every one told her that she had to make her nose smaller so she could be pretty. But she said to them, 'No, I am beautiful, and I won't change the way I look just to please you.' And you know what? You are beautiful too. No one can tell you otherwise."

I looked at her. My face was red, my eyes were puffy, and my nose was running. But she didn't care. She only saw beauty.

I smiled. "Thank you. I really needed this."

"No problem... I'm Eliza. Williams."

"Astoria Greengrass."

We looked at each other and giggled. "Hey, do you wanna skip class and just talk here?"

"...Sure."

In that moment, I gained a new friend. And that friend taught me that I am beautiful.


End file.
